A vacancy arises at the top of a bank we effectively own. Shares fell 5% on the news that Lloyds chief executive António Horta-Osório withdraws with fatigue, unclear if he will return to a banking world unforgiving of "weakness". The 47-year-old ubermensch with a reputation for ruthless competitiveness even on the tennis court, has succumbed after just seven months. This is a stressful job, in which the holder is expected to dash for profits so the taxpayer can sell off that 42% shareholding, a £17bn stake taken out in the crisis.

The vacancy is a chance to think again about what kind of retail banking Britain needs. As the Occupy protest movement focuses on how little has been learned, how little has changed since the crash, here is a chance for Lloyds to become a beacon for good banking to kickstart the economy. Paying back the taxpayer fast is the wrong objective, when what the country – and the taxpayer – most needs is growth.

Much has been written on what better banking might look like – not least from our own Will Hutton and Larry Elliott. The New Economics Foundation is among foremost voices for change, under its head of finance, Tony Greenham, formerly of Credit Suisse and Barclays. Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK has put forward good ideas. Progressive thinker Adair Turner of the FSA has urged reform, castigating as "socially useless" many of the financial instruments that have distracted financiers from their core task.

What might a good bank look like? Like regional banks in Germany and France devoted to local lending to businesses they understand. Lloyds is sacking 45,000 staff over these years, stripping out local expertise, as computerised banking gives automatic credit scores centrally that override any local knowledge. Instead, they should be returning decision-making to local branches with managers empowered to lend and instructed to reinvest funds locally, willing to be long-termist, not required to turn overly quick profits.

The Federation of Small Business finds a third of its members that applied for credit in the last year have missed opportunities to grow because of being turned down; such credit would have been standard in the days when banks understood local business. If the chancellor is about to announce a credit-easing strategy, that money needs to be channelled to the right place: straight to small businesses that need it – and where better than through a re-localised bank we own? Clever guarantees and bonds administered in London are no use without local lenders, committed to a region.

A good bank run by a good banker would set a new, sane standard for pay, working on behalf of the citizen and shaming the others. That might be a reasonable top civil service salary, or perhaps remuneration set on JP Morgan's disused dictum than none should draw more than 20 times the salary of the lowest paid. Horta-Osório stood to earn £8m this year. There are battalions of well-motivated, numerate, experienced people who would seize the chance to show that banking could and should be radically reformed. Many within the banking industry, or recently departed in disgust, want to turn away from devising glamorous, high-octane, devious and dangerous products, to become more sober and dull agents of local banking and investment.

So, who should step up for this job? Who would be the best symbol of intellectual change, profound reform and new direction for the industry on our behalf, in a campaign for better banks? Suggestions below the line …